Marilyn Manson casts Emma Watson in his Musical Cinderella

Marilyn Manson has apparently cast Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince star Emma Watson for the lead role of his upcoming film adaptation of Cinderella.

According to The Sun, Manson's remake of the children's classic will be a musical (Kerrang!)...

I think my brain just freaked out on me. Let's take this apart.

Marilyn Manson is make a Cinderella movie.

Cinderella will be a musical with music by Marilyn Manson.

Emma Watson (Hermione Granger in Harry Potter) will play Cinderella.

My brain still hurts.

Charlie Dorsett

My name is Charlie, but if your looking for my work, I go by C. E. Dorsett. I write scifi, fantasy, and a touch of horror. I like to play with gothic, steampunk, decopunk, epic fantasy, and wuxia. I love to tell stories and talk about books, movies, series, and music.

The Last Airbender Teaser Trailer

I have been one of the voices in the Racebending debate around the new The Last Airbender, but this new teaser looks good but not great.

My first complaint is that the martial arts do not look as natural as I would like for Aang. Secondly is the voice over.

They make the movie sound like it will be a Star Wars meets Harry Potter film, and while that is a good thing to bring a broader audience to The Last Airbender, I only hope that does not mean they have rewritten the story to fit into that mold.

WB COO on Harry Potter

The fan furor over The Half-blood Prince’s release being moved to July has forced a response from WB COO Alan Horn:

Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment in our moving Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to Summer 2009.

Please be assured that we share your love for Harry Potter and would certainly never do anything to hurt any of the films. Over the past 10 years, we have nurtured and protected each film, and the integrity of the books upon which they are based, to the best of our ability.

The decision to move Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was not taken lightly, and was never intended to upset our Harry Potter fans. We know you have built this series into what it is, and we thank you for your ongoing enthusiasm and support.

If I may offer a silver lining: there would have been a two-year gap between Half-Blood Prince and the much-anticipated first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which opens in November 2010.

So although we have to wait a little longer for Half-Blood Prince, the wait from that film until Deathly Hallows will be less than 18 months. I am sorry to have disappointed you now, but if you hold on a little longer, I believe it will be worth the wait.

Beowulf: The Death of a Hero

by Eric

and Brian

It is hard for me to write out my thought on the new animated film, Beowulf, written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary. It is loosely based on the epic poem of English legend. Directed by Robert Zemeckis (Polar Express), the movie features an all star cast:

Ray Winstone (The Chronicles of Narnia) as Beowulf

Anthony Hopkins (Dracula) as Hrothgar

Robin Wright Penn (Princess Bride) as Queen Wealtheow

Dominic Keating (Star Trek Enterprise) as old Cane

Alison Lohman (Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind) as Ursula

John Malkovich (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) as Unferth

Crispin Glover (Back to the Future) as Grendel

Brendan Gleeson (Mad-eye Moody from the Harry Potter Films) as Wiglaf

Angelina Jolie (Tomb Raider) as Grendel's Mother

Just to name a few. The movie was made with the same motion capture tech that Polar Express was. I suppose I have to stop stalling now.

It was a great film overall, but there are many things that bothered me, but before I delve into them too much, I want to lay a foundation from which to build.

Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary did not write a film adaptation of the epic poem, they reimagined the story. They tried to explain Grendel and his mother's motivations. They are not mere monsters. Grendel is driven mad by the resonating cacophony from Hrothgar's mead hall, attacking the village to silence them. Beowulf is motivated by his desire for glory. In their retelling, the story is no longer a story about sacrifice and glory. This new film version is the a deconstruction of the hero.

Like the Thirteenth Warrior (another retelling of Beowulf), the new story is great on its own, even though it pales in comparison with the original. I thoroughly enjoyed the film, but I have a few things against it.

The Animation Quality

The film strived for an ultra-realism that it simply cannot deliver. While the heights the film reaches are spectacular, it is unable to maintain them for any prolonged period. At times, the film has mismatched levels of quality within the same frame. For example, in the scene between Beowulf and Grendel's Mother, Beowulf is stunningly realistic while Grendel's Mother looks like an amazingly sexy character from Shrek.

At times, the quirks in the animation became distracting. Every time they were on a horse, the animation devolved into a jerky cartoonish caricature of a person riding a horse. I found the inconsistencies to be distracting at times. They often took me out of the story and reminded me that I was watching a movie.

I too found the animation to be distracting, mainly the eyes. They were trying for a more realistic feel in the eyes of the characters and at times I thought they were bang on, but most of the time everyone had a lazy eye. It distracted from the story. Consistency is the key for best animation. As a fan I don't mind cartoonish animation because if it is a good story I will get lost in the story but if the quality fluctuates throughout the movie then I get pulled out of the experience.

Postmodern Deconstruction of the Hero

In this retelling, Beowulf is not a hero. He is not a blessing to his people, or a the glory of his race. He is a frail flawed non-hero whose own lust and desire nearly destroys his people. Personally, I am getting sick of these postmodern retellings of classic stories to rob them of their heroic virtue.

I might be alone in this, but I like my heroes to be heroic. About two-thirds of the way into the flick, I sort of checked out. The story had rung hollow for me.

At first I was very excited to see Beowulf acting heroic but by the end I felt robbed. Yes people have faults and flaws but why is it so hard today to just have a hero. Someone who is brave and strong, who faces the enemy and stands up for what is right without having to sellout. I felt dirty in the end. It was like watching the tale of the hippy generation all over again. I think another reason why the plight of the hero didn't sit well with me is that I have to live in the real world where those in authority keeps repeating the sins of their past passing down the problems from one generation to another and selling out to the devil for a period of peace. It makes me angry to see a hero act in a similar manner.

Overly Cinematic

My last complaint is that the story bowed heavily to the established conventions for a feature film, which made parts of the film cliche and the end uselessly dramatic. From the moment they first showed the drinking horn, I knew how the film would end. The end lingered for too long so it could hit the expected disaster-release-disaster-release-disaster-release-black moment-release format that all of the screenplay books recommend.

Overall

Beowulf is a challenged and flawed film that meanders about never really finding its narrative or visual voice, but having said that, it is still a film that deserves to be seen, but probably not owned. I recommend that you pop this one onto your Netflix list and watch it when it comes out on DVD.

Order of Phoenix Cast Announced

Here it comes:

Warner Brothers announced the start of production on the fifth Harry Potter movie, The Order of the Phoenix, and also revealed additional casting for the movie, including Imelda Staunton and 14-year-old newcomer Evanna Lynch, who beat more than 15,000 hopefuls at an open casting call to play Luna Lovegood.

As production gears up at England's Leavesden Studios, new cast members include Staunton as Dolores Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher; George Harris as Kingsley Shacklebolt; Helen McCrory as Bellatrix Lestrange; Natalia Tena as Nymphadora Tonks; Kathryn Hunter as Mrs. Figg; and Lynch, who plays Lovegood, a Ravenclaw student who becomes an important ally of Harry, Ron and Hermione (SciFi Wire).

Goblet of Fire was a better movie than Prisoner of Azkaban movie, so I hope this one will be good too. I am concerned about the appearance of the Thestrals and Harry's detentions (you know what I mean). I hope they don't cheat on these horror elements.